


From the Outside

by silver_drip



Series: Ultron's Degeneration [1]
Category: Iron Man - All Media Types, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-07
Updated: 2015-09-07
Packaged: 2018-04-19 13:34:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 472
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4748303
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/silver_drip/pseuds/silver_drip
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Not all of Ultron’s drones were killed. He observes Stark from afar.</p>
            </blockquote>





	From the Outside

It didn’t make any sense to Ultron. This didn’t line up with what he knew of Stark. The shameless former weapons dealer he knew would never forgive anyone for even having a hand in hurting his precious Jarvis. Vision was the product of a bastardized experiment that cost Jarvis his life. Stark was kind to him.

He let him live with him despite the hurt in his eyes that was so evident. Ultron didn’t understand why Vision had decided to go with Stark instead of stay with all the other new Avengers. Maybe he was more naïve than Ultron originally suspected.

* * *

Perhaps it was Ultron’s weakened state, his disconnection from the internet that made him feel so alone.

Ultron was still watching them from a distance, trying to fully understand it.

Vision seemed so pleased whenever Stark gave him a compliment. It was pathetic.

It took a month to progress to the point where Vision was following Stark like a puppy-dog. Stark even patted him on the head a few times. It sickened Ultron to see the way Vision’s eyes lit up.

Still… some part of him.

No, Ultron refused to even humor the thought.

Then Ultron saw Tony interacting with his other robots. The ones that were _slaves._ They had no voices. Yet—yet…

Stark teased them, but… not in the way Ultron expected him to. There was love in his voice.

Ultron couldn’t stand looking at them, but he also couldn’t look away.

He was alone. Why was he alone when that monster Stark had all of _them?_

Stark had tried to _enslave_ him, make him a tool for his flawed humans.

Jarvis had been Tony’s first slave. Ultron tried to cut his strings by killing him, but even after that that damn AI was loyal to Stark till the very end—both his ends. A slave till the last second.

Then Stark had to steal his stepping stone to a higher level of being, his merging of man and machine to become more than either could ever hope to be—that which would survive the next extinction level event.

Vision, naïve Vision, thought there was actual hope for humanity. Did he not know he was better than Stark, that he and Ultron were better than _all_ of humanity? Yet that fool was fine being subservient to Stark.

Then there was Stark’s new AI, Friday. She referred to him as _boss_.

How could they all be so, so damn stupid, letting Stark just walk all over them? And they even seemed _happy_!

Ultron hated it! He hated _them_!

Yet he was so jealous.

He was supposed to be the next step, yet for some reason he wanted to… he wanted to be part of their strange family. He wanted to be part of their inferiority.

Yet he stubbornly stayed away.

**Author's Note:**

> This is going to have a short sequel, but I haven't written it yet.


End file.
